Turn the crank, rotate the gears, push the levers, Use the catapult, explode it, or fly it...From grilling sausages with a pulley, gears, rubberbands and a candle to firing a cannon with a basketball, these wacky brain-teasers will light up your imagination with creative and addictive fun.

I built stuff.I tested it.I blew sh!t up.I fixed stuff.I made sh!t.I took a sh!t.I was happy about my work.I completed the task.I did all the things the Professor wanted me to do.I blew everything up.I went home and gave this game a good rating because I can blow stuff up.I, as a long time buyer, bought this was first released for the PC many years ago.I have purchased it once more for no need to use the disk.I have the disk.It smelled like plastic.

Crazy Machines is often overlooked "successor" to Incredible Machines, so to say. No, not officially, but it did delivered fun of same genre during years when there was no similiar game.

Even though it's not modern game, it still should run just fine, albeit not supporting widescreen resolution. it comes with two packs of puzzles (that you can pick in "Change Lab"), each having around 100 puzzles, with New Challenges coming out later and introducing new elements. There are also 3 music that you can choose in options, game repeating only one of them all time. Really, Game Music 3 is the best one, immeditly choose this, great upbeat melody.No idea how and when New Challenges and two new music tracks came to be, maybe they were patched or came bundled with new version of the game... There is really no info on Internet on them. I only remember playing Russian version which lacked those, with different title screen. Professor, who's head pops randomly to give useless random phrase, was the best there. Biased. And yes, you can disable him in options too.

So yes, to those unfamiliar, each puzzle is about placing available elements on the level, testing and if it doesn't work, then you are off to replacing, either slightly tweaking position or completely changing whole plan. But where Incredible Machines had more of wacky elements, Crazy Machines gives you more of "realistical" set of items, like bucket and magnet. And, importanly, while doing so, it introduces a more advanced physics, more modern, being more complex than in Incredible Machines. And that is unique strong point of this game. Not to mentioning that it's always great to have more games in this genre, well-done ones at least.You got usual physics, electricity, gravity (in New Challenges) and steam to handle. Great stuff. Setting is quite jolly too.

Yet the game isn't as perfect as I wanted it to be. There are a lot of situation where you have to place object pretty much pixel-perfect. Yes. Move that mouse slowly while holding button. Don't twitch. Test 100 times until it works.And even then some of the puzzles are so out of the box... Well, no, it sounds like positive thing. What I meant, is that some puzzles have solution that appears like physics exploits. Example: in one of the level you have 3 conveyer belts to place, to somehow deliver a box on top of a platform that is way above. What is solution? Place two converyer belts together so the box will get stuck between them and with enough pixel-perfect placing it will roll around and somehow get shot out onto platform. Work of a genius!Yes, after this you can never be sure if solution is something sane or not, making you want instead check walkthroughs.I might go futher and just say that learning curve in this game is simply horrible and difficulty is uneven, not exactly always enjoyable... But I still like this game.

The game also allows you to create your own levels, fully. Using interface that may confuse for first impression. (How to put element into player inventory? Put element into level and then choose it and click on lock icon. Will not appear on level itself after this). But otherwise, you can do as much as normal levels can, setting up task too. Then you can save experiement and uhm, find a friend who playes this game too and maybe wants to try your thing, copying file to his computer. Or you can just set up many explosives to watch physics. Yes, no Steam Workshop support.

So, while Crazy Machines gives a good spin and has it's place in a genre, it has some flawed puzzles that worsen up whole offer and taste. Otherwise, ignoring them, I can recommend it. Just not whole-heartly.

P.S. Also check out Crazy Machines 1.5 if you like this one,more of same. Quite good from what it appears. Because of the screwy way developers handled that "2-games-as-1" app, no one can review it. HA.

I played this game so long ago that when I played it again now it was a total rediscovery. Dated graphics aside the game still is quite entertaining when trying to solve the logic puzzles. Especially the more advanced ones in the later stages. I feel the controls are a bit clunky and confusing and the professor popping up all the time repeating a select few "funny" comments is quite frankly rather annoying. Other than that I still had a good time with this game. I do not know what the price is in the US, but the 10 Euros they charge here in Europe seems a bit steep for an old title like this. I'd recommend the game, but only if you can get it with a healthy discount. Be aware that the game itself is quite short with approximately 102 puzzles to solve.

I give it a 6/10 rating. Quite entertaining, but dated graphics, clunky controls and short.

This game is simpler and not as Rube Goldberg as I expected. It does take a lot of inquisition and ideas if you don't get the games concepts when it has a lack of clear explanation. Don't think that bad, you're supposed to experiment in the game. I found that once I conceptualized every aspect of the mechanics given that after I understood each one seperately I could breeze through most of the 'obstacle' like levels that have some funny yet odd goals. I mean, some of it is common sense, some of it can be luck, and sometimes you just know or have to figure it out. The game scared me by giving me a timer, I did get stalled once and it ran out, but ignore it, for NOTHING happens when your timer hits 0. It was just an average time for most people to finish the level, don't be discouraged, try your best and if you get stuck well work through it and keep having fun! Sadly I rate this game at a 6/10 - my lowest rating to date. Maybe I'm leniant, only 'bad' games will get below 5. If I didn't enjoy it, and it was a waste of time and money, I'll definitely let you know. Go get this game series!

Crazy Machines is a mind puzzle game. As the apprentice of a wacky inventor, complete the puzzles to achieve specific effects using a limited amount of knick-knacks.

Pros: This starts out as a fairly simple game with a low learning curve, new elements being introduced as you progress from puzzle to puzzle. You can test the effect of the solution as often as you'd like, which you'll be required to do, regularly needing to adjust your setup and check how different the effect is. The physics of the game, although not fully realistic, are close enough to help guess how most pieces work and wrap your head around it.

Cons: The difficulty isn't as gradual as it could be. You might have a hard puzzle that requires you to adjust one or more item by a pixel, over and over until it works, followed by an extremely straightforward puzzle right after. The hint system is very limited, are rarely actually help. Graphics are showing their age.

Verdict: All and all, Crazy Machines is exactly what it sets out to be, and there is no mistaking that it follows directly in the footsteps of The Incredible Machines. If that's what you're looking for, you won't care about the graphics and this game has the cheapest puzzle/$ ratio of the franchise. This game is void of any action or excitement, but rather is meant to make you stop, think, observe and resolve the puzzle. If it's what you're looking for, you won't be disappointed.